Taking a closer look at the full costs of energy acquisition and dissipation

Monday, January 7, 2008

Welcome Back

Hello UNCW students. Welcome back. I hope you all had a relaxing, refreshing break and are ready to get back to work. This blog will serve as the official homepage for our course. I expect you to read it daily and to post comments weekly. Invite your friends to read and comment. Heck - invite your mom and dad, the more the merrier. I am looking forward to Thursday's class - please have chapter one read beforehand.

The exams will be composed of essay-type questions, short answers and graphing. Each exam will test your knowledge of material covered since the previous exam, so these exams are not explicitly comprehensive. However, as much of what we will learn in this class builds on previously attained knowledge, all of the material is in effect cumulative.

ATTENDANCE POLICY:

Attendance is not a formal component of your grade in this class. You will be held responsible for everything that goes on in class including all material (some of which is not in the text) and the consequences of any important announcements.My advice, which you may choose to ignore, is to never miss class, because class is easy (show up, listen, and participate), its fun, and we’re going to learn to some really interesting stuff.

MAKE-UP POLICY:

Make-ups will only be given in the event of a valid and approved University emergency. The exam dates are set. Please schedule your semester accordingly.

TIPS FOR SUCCESS:

This class is about learning some of the fundamental issues in economics, and applying an economic way of thinking to environmental problems encountered by society. As we develop a methodology for examining these problems, I hope you will also continue to develop a more general sense of intuition about economic problems and issues. I am not terribly interested in formalism and memorization. I am interested in intuition and understanding. To accurately test your knowledge, I will ask you some questions that may be perceived as requiring memorization, but most importantly I want you to show that you have truly learned the material and understand why it is important. As you study, you should always ask yourself questions that begin with the word “Why” to gauge your comprehension (“How” questions are pretty important too).

To be successful students of economics, we need to be inquisitive. I will ask a lot of questions during class, and I hope you will respond. Reading chapters ahead of time will greatly contribute to your success in class. I cannot stress this strongly enough. Please do not hesitate to ask me questions either during or after class. While I cannot promise to have all the answers, I can assure you that issues you feel are important will be addressed.

This is your course. You will find that I am pretty flexible with regard to many aspects of this class. I value your input and will use it to make the class better for you, so if there is anything that you feel will enhance your learning experience, please let me know.

Finally, if you feel that you are having difficulty with a topic or issue, please let me know as soon as possible. Do not wait until it’s too late. Use the office hours or make an appointment to see me at another time (or send me your questions via e-mail).

POLICYON ACADEMIC HONESTY: The UNCW Academic Honesty Policy, as documented in the Undergraduate Catalogue and in the Student Handbook, will be followed in this course.